What You Need:
- Favorite color construction paper
- Composition book
- Old magazines and catalogs
- Scissors
- Glue
- Crayons or washable markers
- Pencil
What You Do:
- Before beginning this activity, review the alphabet together—you can sing the song, look at the letters, or simply talk about the sounds that the letters make.
- Create the "Alphabet Journal." Explain to your child that you are going to make and design an "Alphabet Journal" together. Allow your child to choose a sheet of their favorite color of construction paper to use for the cover of their journal.
- Cut the selected construction paper to the size of the composition book. Brainstorm a creative title for the journal (i.e. Hannah's Amazing Alphabet Journal). Write this title on the cut construction paper. Let your child decorate the cover sheet as they would like, and glue the paper to the front of the composition book.
- Now that you have the journal, start studying! Select a "Letter of the Day/Week." Research shows that children learn the letters and sounds "b" and "d" first, followed by "s", "t", "k", "m", and other consonants, so it would be helpful to select these as some of the first "Letters of the Day/Week." Save vowels and letters like "c" and "g" for later; these letters are often confusing to young children since they can make more than one sound.
- After choosing the letter, help your child search through the catalogs and magazines for pictures of items that begin with the target letter. When you find an item, ask your child to identify the item and the letter they think it might begin with.
- Cut the items out as you find them and glue them into the first page of the journal. If you are having any difficulty finding items in a magazine, just encourage your child to draw pictures!
- As you put pictures in the journal, ask your child to help you spell the name of each item, and label the pictures on the page.
- When done finding pictures, have your child practice printing the letter in both upper and lowercase on the blank lines of the page, or on the back.
- Keep adding to the journal on a daily/weekly basis until you finish the alphabet, and together, you'll create a wonderful alphabet resource book!
Note: As parents of young students, you are well aware that kids' attention spans may be somewhat short for an activity of this length. If this is a concern, try breaking the activity into more than one session. For instance, you can create the journal and find the pictures in one session; glue and label the pictures in another session; and save the writing for the last session.
